Small is beautiful

One of the things last week reminds me of is that catch cry of the 70s 'small is beautiful'

What ever else Copenhagen does, (and I think it is probably important), this global warming stuff has to be attacked on the personal front as well as the global.

Most people begin to realise that there is a downside to big cars, big houses and lots of stuff. And I suspect that most people are unhappy with their personal waste of food, clothes and junk. It is not always easy to see how to deal with this. But I guess the answer is to do what we can ourselves.

I made the observation yesterday that if nothing else comes out of Copenhagen then the name of Tuvalu has become something important. This small island nation will be amongst the first affected if the sea levels rise as predicted by some. They have little influence, and do not really have much clout in anything when it all boils down to it. Yet some how we get.,.small is beautiful and is what it is all about.

Great wedding

I went to to E & B's rather lovely wedding yesterday. I have known E's family for many years and in fact married her two brothers as well.

She is a very fine professional woman, statuesque and lovely personality. Her fiance is actually an Iranian refugee. Great young man, and a true example of the system working well (if not a little slowly).

It was great to see him stand amidst his brothers and with much of his family who now llive in Australia.

You can imagine that this provides much food for thought, reflection and prayer so I won't try to tell you everything, dear reader. But here are some thoughts.

First, the speeches were all great. Which is not always the case.

But we were all impressed, not in a patronising way with speeches crafted by the best man and the groom.

The great care they took was wondrous.

At many weddings there is too little care, but given that neither was speaking in their first language, I was touched by the careful word choice and the absolute sincerity.

A good dose of humour was present, which is not always easy to get in another language.

Their desire to assert the establishment of this new family and to embrace this lovely woman into their fold was just amazing.

I was moved to watch B stand with his father and mother and their sons and daughter, and have their photos taken...while we all have such photos at weddings...this did have about it the great sense of victory.

Second, perhaps the best thing about the wedding ceremony (though the bride looked stunning) was the ululation. ... you know that high pitched African trilling ... as E walked into the garden this spontaneously erupted. I hadn't quite expected it, but it was so thrilling and happened several times , well often, during the night.

As the excitement and joy just boiled over it would be picked up and thrill us all!

Now this is Australia, there is always something like this at weddings because we come from such diverse cultural backgrounds. I guess we will find something like this when S marries D (of Hungarian extraction) next year.

Third, as I prayed for those who weren't there. Particularly thinking of Claire, E's grandmother who died not so long ago, I suddenly realised that who knew what else this refugee family had had to bear, and who was not there for them today and who this prayer might refer to.

And then, lastly, there was just the dancing. It looked a lot like young men showing off, but it was great!!!

The Rev'd Dr Who

I was listening to Radio National this morning and particularly the talkback about belief and unbelief
It parallels a rather cruder discussion in the local paper about whether 'belief' is rational and/or scientific.

One commentator on the radio made the point that when he was younger, brought up as a Christian he actually made the switch from the Bible to Dr Who. And that while (he felt) Bible stories shut discussions down the Dr Who narratives offered a way forward.

It is an intriguing idea, rather belittling of the scripture...and, I would suggest, rather tenuous.

People who make statements about the scriptural narrative seem to have very simplistic understanding of how it works.

Their reading often seems childish, which is not really surprising since their recounting of scripture often seems to be at the Sunday School level. (A letter in this morning's paper for example refers to "the magic apple"... while this might give the idea legs , it is not really very intelligent).

Those of us who have stuck with it usually find that the narratives just get deeper and deeper as life goes on

Take the narrative, for example in 1 Kings 19 about the prophet Elijah

(After Ahab sought to kill Elijah) Elijah went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of theLord came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.

Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’

He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for theLord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.’

This is brilliantly crafted stuff. Time and time again it has spoken to me about how people lose motivation, feel cowed. And how, time and time again, God restores me. This is not insignificant stuff for serious people.

While the stories of Dr Who are fun, maybe even making a good point every now and then (the invincibility of rigorous science was mentioned by this morning's commentator)...the power of religious literature is so often the profound reflection on the depth of the human condition. But this takes more than a glimpse, or Sunday School to grasp.

When the critics start to grapple seriously with the narratives and not just dismiss it as though they are childish myths, then maybe we might get some serious dialogue.

To what end

We are all no doubt pleased that State Opposition leader Isabel Redmond has apparently survived being tasered and 'didn't flinch'. She claims this is not a stunt...if it is not then why do it?

But really this sort of approach to policy is ridiculous. The most absurd would be for proponents of the death penalty to submit to injection/electrocution/gassing...or whatever ...in order to prove that it is 'humane'. This sort of example suggests that being tasered proves nothing at all...other than that attempting to prove the 'humanity' of tasering is pretty pointless; just as attempting to prove the humanity of the death sentence, or corporal punishment or water-boarding by actually submitting to it is futile. It only proves that you (the foolish one who so submits) happily survived it.

There needs to be some more serious thought given to what more objective criteria should be adopted. The emotionalism of a politician undertaking the test, is as futile as the child of the 50s who protests "My father strapped me and ti hasn't done me any harm!"

Until such time as we have more objective criteria, then let us be a bit more circumspect about the promotion of state-sanctioned violence.

Wonderful! Wonderful! - (trouble in ) Copenhagen

While the nay sayers will no doubt have a field day with the fact that Copenhagen doesn't seem to be getting anywhere fast. And that there is fractious debate, and a lot of disagreement.

Can I at least ask the question: Who ever thought it was going to be otherwise?

While there is clearly a lot of diverse opinion about who caused all this, about what constituent parties can do; and whether (even) talking and paper shuffling can achieve anything...no one surely thinks this is easy.

So why would we not expect diversity, conflict and disagreement. Only those who want to politically point-score will see such as a negative, I rather think it is a sign of a robust debate. (perhaps some call robust debate....argument or disagreement or stoush...or what ever) and this must be good.

There will be no simplistic solution, there will be no gain without pain. And it is only the beginning, to think otherwise is just puerile.

I often say to my community when we feel swamped to the point where we feel that nothing we do will achieve anything.

If we do nothing then nothing will be done!

This self-evident truism is a warning for all of us against apathy.

Boom go the strings of my heart

Westfield at West Lakes suggests that it should start charging for people to use its suburban shopping centre car park. This is almost as serious to the Australian psyche as charging for parking at the beach.

The whole pretext of the consumer's preference for suburban shopping rather than city centre is not having to pay for parking!

I want to ask, on one level, on what basis does Westfield occupy the West Lakes site (I imagine for example they may not be the owner but rather the lessee). For example at Marion the car park has parking control signs. These would seem to be operated by the local council! (ie. fines (usually only bothered about during the Christmas season...'tis after all the season to be jolly!!) are issued by the council). So let not the local council try to blame shift.

Personally I think Westfield are about to create one helluva local hullaballoo!!!

quanto costo?

I think we ought to be realistic that you cannot run government for nothing. I tire of those newspaper stories that say Minister F spent $137,000 on a trip to Calathumpia to sell SA oranges.

I know it's a lot of money, but you can't do this crap for nothing. Nor can you expect Ministers of the Crown to stay in 2 star dives.

But inevitably you get the league tables, and the ridiculous questions.

The latest being about the cost of Copenhagen. The two mad terriers, Matt and Dave, in their last program for the year on Friday last had a good go at Penny Wong the Minister for Climate Change. I found myself getting enraged at their worrying at the legs of the good Senator. To be fair she dealt patiently with them. I am not sure if the transcript is available, but she gave a good rationale for why Australia benefits from having many people present. In particular she drew attention to multi-layered presences, from bureaucratic exchanges to region-region negotiation. Our own Premier is co-chair of this important multi local government exchange.

Wong stands out as a fierce and rigorous negotiator( see here for example)

Th truth is that Matt and Dave were adopting the cheap spin of the Opposition. It's easy to say it all costs too much. But what is the alternative? Do we not go?

In truth Australia has often, perhaps always, has punched above its weight. This is the privilege of being a small rich country. Were not our involvement in both wars, and the Vietnam war, perhaps these two latter awful wars, and our many jaunts with UN forces, and in many international fora; all examples of being privileged and indeed required to 'punch above our weight'

Our sporting prowess no less is supported in the same sort of way, strange that you don't find Mr Abbott suggesting that the government spends too much on sport. Ahhhh but Mr Abbott that would be not as cheap to sell to the electorate!!!

Back to the future

It is clear, then, what Abbot's policy is as he appoints Bronwyn Bishop, Ruddock and Andrews to his front bench.

While there is no doubt that this group of 'tried' politicians have had measured success in a reactionary sort of way in the past; it is difficult to see that they will not alienate the very sections of the electorate that the Opposition need to attract back.

No wonder Turnbull will break with their reactionary sort of stuff. [I am trying not to invoke Godwin's law (here) and it is difficult.] One wonders if there will be a party split. I imagine Malcolm is unlikely to be bothered with such political nitpicking, but I guess we shall see.

Personally I think that Ruddock is one of the most divisive ministers we have had, how ever well (or not) he may have dealt with issues of immigration, he presents as a hard, callous and unbending individual. Bronwyn is almost a caricature, and Kevin Andrews recent participation in the leadership shenanigans leaves all sorts of questions unanswered.

Maybe he never thought he would be a potential leader and was just precipitating a crisis but even the bookies didn't give him any chance of being elected the other day. I was also bemused by one very senior journalist's radio comments about his putting himself forward, the disdain was palpable.

I personally don't think they have done themselves any favours.

The electorate will easily perceive that this is a "tried" team...but I wonder if they will also think that it is 'true'

A bit amusing

The Corowood Choir will be singing Hallelujah amongst other things at its Christmas concert at St John's Coromandel Valley. 337 Main Road, Coromandel Valley, Friday 11th at 7.30 p.m.. Entry by donation (suggest $5) for save the children (map here). Next door to the Primary School
Christmas songs, nibbles and fun. Make yourself known to me if you come as a result of reading my blog and you will go into the draw to win the Christmas Blog Prize!!!!

In the mean time this is a bit of a hoot!

This is worth watching! Particularly for members of the Corowood Choir.